Match report

Match report

For the first day of May, the beauty of the Adelaide Hills was on full display. Whilst comparisons of the Ashton Oval pitch to the fairways of Augusta National may have been slightly exaggerated, there was no doubt the colours of the surrounding hills were something to savour including various shades of pale from those in the crowd wearing shorts.

Hahndorf were keen to build momentum to their season but were going to have to do it with 10 players. With regular defender David Nielsen unavailable, Oliver Thorpe still mending from a round 1 elbow fracture and Matt ‘the King’ Daly only available on a restricted basis, the Hahndorf boys were going to have dig deep.

The Rangers team have had an addition of new players and benefitted from playing together in the previous season and as such are showing tremendous team improvement, so it was not surprising that, despite the unusually warm May day temperature, the game from the outset was a competitive tussle.

Whilst not unique, a criticism of Hahndorf from time to time has been slow starts to a game, this was not the case for today’s game, with the team finding their groove from the get go. This was evidenced by excellent and accurate ball passing which saw Turbo Boekel get a nice left side break who showed some great finishing skills to net his first for the season in only the second minute of the game.

Any thoughts of a one-sided affair though were put to rest with the Rangers defence solid and their attacking opportunities the equal of Hahndorf. It was only down to some Kane ‘cold play’ Gibbs brilliance that saw a perfectly weighted ball escape the clutches of the Rangers keeper for Hahndorf’s second mid-way through the half.

If managing player numbers is coach Kerr’s cur, the flip side is the dedication and heart shown by his players. This was exemplified by the efforts of Hahndorf’s key attacking forward, Kyle Fenlon who always busts his gut to get to the ball first and is duly rewarded with some great goals as was displayed in the last minute of the first half followed by a second early in the second half to put Hahndorf in a commanding position.

With the exit of a number of players from the successful 2020 campaign, Hahndorf was able to recruit a number of players that have all had a tremendous impact on the team. Jye Martin & Tyler Weyland have previously played for Hahndorf and their return to the fold is a very welcome addition. The Jye ‘masterpiece’ Martin is a very versatile player who can play in any position, very much the ultimate team player. Tyler ‘walk this way’ Weyland is a gun. His collaboration with Josh ‘the Rock’ Rayner at the back has given the team a solid defence and his ability to attack out of defence is as good as anyone, coach Kerr might just need to tell him the aim of the game is to get the ball in the net, not over it.

A welcome addition to the AHJSA U17’s is the mixed team. Most teams appear to have at least one female player on their team and wow! Hahndorf and Rangers both had a female player in their ranks today and both girls had great games, Hahndorf’s Charlotte ‘Boudica’ Hodgson can mix it with the best of the boys, and backs it up playing with the senior women’s team most weekends – well done Boudica.

The final addition to Hahndorf for 2021 has been Dan ‘the General’ McArthur. With JPL experience, Dan controls where ever he is on the pitch and has already provided some best on ground

performances, from defence to attack this is a player you want on your team, this is a very handy Hahndorf pick up.

But back to the game – so the first half ended with a 3-0 advantage to Hahndorf. For the second half, after having Xavier ‘catwalk’ Kell in goals for the first half, ‘cold play’, being someone who never complains, went into goals and despite the early Fenlon goal the remainder of the second half was very competitive only to be broken by a third and final goal by Fenlon in the 70th minute.

Credit then to Hahndorf led by captain Eddie ‘Hardman’ Hardingham who marshalled his troops to a dominant win over a competitive Rangers opposition played in a good competitive spirit (with no yellow cards).

Best on ground from the writer’s perspective was Kyle Fenlon, with Tyler and Turbo putting in excellent performances.